I noticed that all your examples from FOTR, the most faithful to the books. Did you feel the same way about the other two? Any particular likes or dislikes?
Likes:
The Orcs. Not so much as individuals, more in their masses. The Moria sequence with the Orcs swarming over every available surface really emphasised their distance from other humanoid races.
Dislikes:
Faramir & Denethor. 'nuff said.
Dialogue. The worst dialogue would have been bad in any movie.
Gimli. I can almost hear the production meeting.
UNKNOWN STUDIO FUNCTIONARY: "We've got Legolas for the tweenies and teens, and Aragorn for the Twenty-somethings. Arwen works as love interest. Who are we going to use for comic relief? Merry and Pippin aren't in the main plot for long enough. I know, that Dwarf character; who was he?"
Condolences:
Elves; especially the older ones. How is anyone supposed to portray a being who took part in the fall from heaven? Or one who personally remembers a time equivalent to the foundation of the Egyptian empire?
I'd also question the notion that JRRT's dialogue would not work on screen. Compare readings from the King James with those from the Good News. The Royal Jim performs so much better. It's language written for speaking and I find JRRT to be very much an heir to this tradition of writing; especially his dialogue and poetry.
PJ et al had the Mise-en-scene handed to them on a plate and then took a pineapple to it. FoTR was the exception along with the battle scenes (bar Mumak surfing). I think it can, and will, be done better.
That said, these were the first serious attempt at a live action version. Jackson and his script writers had reason to belive they could write films better than JRRT. Their failures may represent a systemic failure of the Hollywood style rather than a failure of vision on the part of the movies' creative team. The economics of big-budget movie production often force artistic compromises (which directors had better pass off as their own judgement if they want more work) which rarely work to the advantage of the movie. It's the old dictum "Smart people will watch dumb movies, dumb people won't watch smart movies." If you want to maximise profit you have to maximise bums-on-seats. Not that these are dumb movies, but they could have been a whole lot smarter. Worse they could, in my opinion, have been smarter and still made nearly as much money.
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